Phonology Syntactic Lexicon

Malaysia





























Shortened vowel sounds


Diphthongs may be reduced
to single vowel sounds


Glottalised or absent /k/
sounds of the ed endings of
regular past simple tense


Omission of consonants from
the end of words particularly
the /t/ and /d/ sounds of the
ed endings of regular past
simple tense


Reduced consonant clusters
to approximate the nearest
sounds in L1












Lack of an auxiliary verb in question form aside
from subject elision.


Insertion of tag or not to indicate a yes/no
type of question.


The use of can, cannot, got and
dont have


The use of the ah particle in their
conversations to mark a question


The use of question tags (is it and isnt it) at
the final position of a clause, phrase or sentence


The use of completive aspect marker


( i.e. the use of adverbs of time such as
already and sudah instead of tense)








First semantic relationship:
the use of institutionalised concepts

emotional and cultural loading

semantic restriction

cultural/culinary terms

hyponymous collocation

campus/student coinages


Borrowed lexical items are characterised through the use of:
compounding

affixation

conversion

pluralisation

tense inflection

gerundalising

Second semantic relationship
polysemic variation

informalisation

formalisation

directional reversal

college colloquialism
American





























New York City
-- socially
significant variable (i.e. a
prestige marker)


linking or additional /r/ at the
end of any word ending in a
vowel

New England
tions
Cuba [kjubr]

The South
d differences between
stressed & unstressed syllables
(a.k.a. the southern drawl)

diphthongal off-glide
For e.g. Urp for Europe, fern
for foreign, Preszdet for
President

Monophthong a() -- /a/
For e.g. I apologise (Ah, Apollo
jars)

diphthongs // (to some
extent dependent of the
following consonant )

For e.g. glade for glad
The South

-- yous
You all or yall (in the south)
Youuns (Pittsburgh area)
You guys / you people (in informal English
general expressions to refer to both men of
women plural for you)

might could
maybe I could (meaning: to express a degree of
uncertainty & politeness)
We might can make it

(meaning: about to)
I was just fixin to leave



The Midland

(meaning: nowadays,
currently)
They watch a lot of videos anymore











Regional AmE vocabulary Dictionary of American
Regional English (DARE)
For e.g. : Word lists to complain the heat / summer sun





h to roast a lizard


-dialectical vocabulary
differences
faucet / spigot / tap A device with a valve for
regulating the flow of a
liquid
snap beans / string beans
/ green beans
A type of vegetable with
a stringy fiber on the
pods
Earth worm / angleworm
/ fishing worm / night
crawler
A type of worm used in
fishing













Australia





























Salient features of vowels /
diphthongs:

diphthongs
(esp. broad AusE)
no distinction between /ai/
and /ei/
/gudai mait/
main vs. mine

words
film-- filem ;
known -- knowen

intonation
- same function as tag
questions / expressions such
as OK?
- confirmation that the listener
for the speaker to continue
with the speaking turn

/ in some
unstressed affixes

ed, es
[wntd] wanted
[bksz] boxes, boxers





in
cultivated AusE
Prices are lower than what they have been

had have in
general & broad AusE
Meaning: The speaker is saying of
If you had have said
If he had have been

shell
be right
Meaning: a form of reassurance that things will
be all right
Alex : yeah, shell be right
Bill : Shell be right good on ya HXE318



Shortened nouns (i.e. clipping) and additional
dimunitive suffixes

A sign of informality (Australian value)
es / surnames
Bazza
Campo
Newk
Jezza

Other nouns:
beaut for beauty or beautiful
uni for university
Oz for Australia
roo for kangaroo
pollie, journo, etc.

Different usage of existing words in English to show
unique local cultures

The concept of bush -> all Australia (except the
towns)
bush ballad a ballad about life in the bust
bushranger a bandit / an outlaw
bush tucker simple country food
bush whacker someone who lives in the bush
to go bush -- (to go into the country side / to
dissappear to be away from civilisation)


- Names of places:
Wagga Wagga; Wollongong

-Names of landscape, flora & fauna:
kangaroo, wallaby, koala, kookaburra, dingo,
coolibah, billabong


The flash language --- to symbolise Oz life
topographical features why? No adequate vocabulary
for the pastoral life when they left the prisons
station stock farm
squatter occupier of public land without a title
paddock meadow
river & creek all categories of running water


new chum (a novice) originally, a new fellow prisoner
old hand originally, an ex-convict
swag (large quantity) originally, a thiefs loot
South Asian
Initial voiceless plosives p, t, k
are not aspirated in SAE


The fricatives f, , are
pronounced as ph, th, d
respectively


No distinction between v and
w both are pronounced [w]



Most diphthongs are
pronounced as simple vowels


No distinction between tense
and lax vowels
deep vs. dip;
seat vs. sit;
boot vs. book


Initial vowels are preceded by
a glide in some words
inner --- [yinnr]
open --- [wopn]






Reduplication
Cut it into small small pieces


Yes,no? and isnt it are used as general tags
He was angry, isnt it?


Often uses the progressive
I am knowing


Transfer of idioms and metaphors from South
Asian languages
In olden times, women just worked a bullock
(from Kannada)
you are a big man and we are but small
radishes from an unknown garden (from Urdu)
The Play had gone bad, like pickle in the
monsoon (from Punjabi)


-Through travel literature, & government related
registers (e.g. items related to legal system, revenue
and administration)
Chit (a note / a letter)
Tiffin (snack)
Buggi / bogey (carriage)


Compounding (e.g. illegal remover of fairly large items
combining thief and kidnapper)
lifter
Baby-lifter; bicycle-lifter; cattle-lifter; child-lifter; taxi-
lifter


Heteronymic compounding
The borrowed form wallah forms nouns meaning a
person associated with )
Rickshaw-wallah (rickshaw driver)
Panwallah (seller of betel-chewing ingredients)
Congresswallah (member of the Congress Party)
Delhiwallah (person from Delhi)


Collocations (English formations but localised
meaning(s))
Batchmate (fellow student)
Head bath (washing ones hair after massaging with
oil)
African
Interactions between spelling
and region/mother tongue
Southern Nigeria, Sierra
Leone, Gambia
first *fst] --- bird *bd] ---
third *td]
Hausa speakers (northern
Nigeria)
bird *bad+ --- murder
[mada] --- world *wald+


Diphthongs are usually
pronounced as monopthongs
/e/ --- /e/
// --- /o/


Fricatives tend to be avoided


Elision of consonants /
insertion of vowels in
consonant clusters to split
them
confidence --- [knfdns]









-- Extensive usage of verb+ing constructions
I am having your book.
I was not liking the food in the restaurant.


Overgeneralisation of pluralisation
luggages
furnitures
advices


Omission of determiners
I am going to cinema.
She gave him tough time.


Common usage of pronoun copying
Many of the fish, they have different colours
Me, I am going to sleep.


Different usage of phrasal / prepositional verbs
I will pick you at 9 oclock tonight
Semantic extensions (i.e. additional meanings to broadly
established English lexical items)
some amount (money, cash)
an arrangement man (someone who usually gets his
way)
a benchman (a crony , an intimate friend)


Semantic shifts (i.e. change in meanings and functions
of words in which their central contexts become
marginal / vice-versa)
machine (may mean specifically sewing machine)
serviceable (willing to serve)
guested (to have aguest)
steer (a steering wheel)


Coinage (to Africanise English)
he has given nothing coinable *no money+
*They+ had pre-knowledge of one anothers wheretos
of going and whereabouts.


Loan translations
chicken parlour (commercial place where chicken,
fish and drinks are sold)
job side /site (work place)
Hong Kong
Patterns of intonation are
influenced from Cantonese
Word stress


Final cluster reduction & the
use of the flap /r/ for /l/
english *r]
college *krd]


/v/ is realised as /w/ in
prestress position
vine *wan]
event *iwnt]


/v/ is realised as /f/ after a
stressed vowel
leave *lif+
even *ifn]


Vowel sounds in HKE
// in both heat and hit
// in both head and had
/u/ in both hoot and hood
// in both caught and cot

Lacks of plural marking and third-person-
singular marking
He give all the picture to you.


A variable lack of copula
The Vietnam people smuggled out.
English main language of instruction.


Nonmarking of the past tense
Mandarin, I learn(ed) privately.


Nonoccurence of it as subject and nonoccurence
of the object with transitive verbs
Yes, finish.
I dont like.


Lack of distinction between active and passive
can lead to considerable ambiguity
I am boring in lectures.
can lead to the passivisation of unaccusative
verbs
Ive been tried (i.e. trying) hard to do that.

Borrowing from Chinese
oTaipan (a foreign head of a native business)
oPak choi (Chinese cabbage)
oFung shui (geomancy used in deciding the location
/positioning of buildings)
oGwailo (foreigner)


Coinages
oCanto-pop (Cantonese pop music)
oChinglish (Chinese English)


Compounds (to describe culture-specific phenomena)
oDragon - dragon boat, dragon dance, dragon pot,
dragon cup
oTemple - temple bell, temple altar, temple compound,
temple festival


Uncountable nouns become count nouns
oEquipments, advices


Loan-translations
oAstronaut (a Hong Kong spouse semi-permanently in
transit between Hong Kong & a home abroad)
oBanana (westernised Chinese)
oShoe shine (curry favour; bootlick)






Philippines
Rhotic

A sing-song intonation

Distinction between long and
short vowels is not observed
o sheep ship
o full fool
o boat bought

Fricatives /, / are often
rendered as /t, d/
othis [ds]
othin [tn]

Dental /t / /d/ /n/ /l/

Voicing distinctions are often
lost
o/s/ and /z/
o// and //

Restructuring of tense & aspect systems


o Some of them crying because teacher ask
them to read stories in Filipino.

OR vice-versa
o We have done it yesterday (We did it
yesterday)

behaviour instead of the simple present
o He is going to school regularly (He goes to
school regularly)

Usage of singular verb forms with plural subject
o Ocean, solar and wind power sources has a
potential

Lack of marking on the third-person-singular
verb
o He go to school.

The use of wherein (particularly in spoken
speech)
o This practice is still being done in several
universities in the US okay wherein they have a
quota for different racial groups






Borrowings from Spanish / Tagalog / Filipino
merienda (afternoon tea)
maja blanca (coconut pudding)
kundiman (love song)
dalagang (traditional good girl)
barong (traditional smart shirt made
from embroidered cloth)
Don/Doa (title for a prominent man/woman)
lechon (roast pig dish)
asalto (surprise party)
despedida (farewell party)


Heteronyms
Carabao (water buffalo)
Yaya (nanny, nursemaid)
sari-sari (corner shop/neighbourhood store)


Local coinages
Carnap (to steal a car)
Jeepney (taxi on a jeep chassis)